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Chloe Kim recounts how her dad drove her six hours to Mammoth every week

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Updated: 2:54 PM PST Feb 13, 2018

Lee Jin-man, Associated Press

Chloe Kim

SOURCE: Lee Jin-man, Associated Press

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Chloe Kim recounts how her dad drove her six hours to Mammoth every week

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Updated: 2:54 PM PST Feb 13, 2018

(By SF GATE / Katie Dowd) —

A 2016 video about snowboarder Chloe Kim is making the rounds again after her Olympic gold medal turn in Pyeongchang - and you're going to want to break out the tissues for it.

Kim, then 16, talks about the special relationship with her father, Jong Jin Kim, and how he supported her dreams from her first day on the slopes. Jong says in the video he knew Chloe was a special talent by age eight, and he soon after quit his job so he could facilitate her burgeoning snowboarding career.

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As Long Beach-area residents, that meant a long drive to get Chloe to Mammoth Lakes every weekend - six hours each way.

The driving was a huge part, I think, of my everyday life," she says. "We would always leave at two, three in the morning. When I was younger, what he would do was he would carry me out of bed. When I'd wake up, I'd just wake up in a new spot every time."

Chloe's parents moved to Southern California from South Korea in the 1980s, with her father enrolling at El Camino College to study engineering. At night, he operated machinery to pay the bills. He took Chloe on her first snowboarding trip at age four - he also learned at the same time - although it was quickly clear she was the superior talent.

"I was in the lift line at Mammoth, and this little girl in a blue helmet with a pink face mask asked to ride the chair with me," Olympic snowboarder Kelly Clark told ESPN. "Then I started seeing her at the halfpipe. The sheer amount of days I would see her out there, regardless of weather, spoke volumes."

Kim's parents bought her first snowboard on eBay for just $25. Before she turned 16, she'd won three gold medals at the X Games; she qualified for the Sochi Olympics at 13 but decided not to go because of her age.

Last night, Americans watched Chloe bring home a gold medal, her proud father looking on, as always.

"If I had a message to give my dad, it'd probably be 'thank you, thank you, thank you,'" Chloe says in the 2016 video. "He's helped me so much on this crazy journey. Giving up his job, being away from my mom, and being away from home for that much just because of me? It's a lot. And I thank him for it."